A LUCKY rabbit's foot - or rather four of them ­- has certainly lived up to its name for Ipswich bunny Archie.

A LUCKY rabbit's foot - or rather four of them ­- has certainly lived up to its name for Ipswich bunny Archie.

It is thanks to a series of good luck that the pet is today back home after an escape took him across a busy road, onto a construction site and 40 miles to Essex.

It is almost the ultimate lost and found success story. Archie went missing three weeks ago when he left the safety of his garden in Spring Road, in north east Ipswich.

Owner Charlotte Allinson, two, her parents Emma and Rob, and 10-month-old brother Ben, had given up hope when they saw an article in the Evening Star showing one-year-old Archie alive and well.

Mrs Allinson, 27, said: “We'd given him up for lost, thinking he had been run over or had found another home.

“Charlotte was upset but we kept saying hopefully he would come home soon.

“Then my aunty saw the story in the Star. When we showed Charlotte she shouted his name and was really excited.”

Archie, a lion head, had in fact crossed over Spring Road and wandered onto a construction site at Davenport Place development, where Adam Murphy, 26, was working on September 16.

Mr Murphy knocked on doors in the area to try to find the owners but ended up taking the pet home to Bicknacre, near Chelmsford, to safety where his wife Jo Thomason-Murphy, has 13 rabbits.

Mrs Thomason-Murphy, 26, said: “We were preparing ourselves to look after the rabbit but because we already have 13 it was quite a relief.

“We could tell it was a pet because it was so friendly but we didn't think we had much chance of finding the owners.

“We were really surprised when we got the phone call - especially because it was the same night it went in the paper.”

Archie was reunited with Charlotte on Saturday .

Mrs Allinson said: “He's gone missing before but he never goes any further than one of three gardens nearby.

“We can't thank Adam and his wife enough for taking him in and keeping him safe.”

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Pet owners in south east England rate their pets more highly than their friends and 94per cent consider the pets part of the family, according to the RSPCA

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